California Attorney General Issues Warning on Trump’s Buyout Offer

California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks about immigrant rights on Jan. 24, 2025 in San Diego. Jane Yang/The Epoch Times

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Feb. 3 warned federal employees in the state about what he called the Trump administration’s “questionable ‘deferred resignation’ program.”

Bonta said unions representing federal employees had warned their members against the buyout offer and that benefits were not guaranteed.

“I urge federal employees to heed warnings from their unions to be very cautious of any buyout offers,” he said in a statement.

The Trump administration on Jan. 28 announced the “deferred resignation” initiative offering eligible federal employees eight months of payment and benefits coverage until the end of September, if they resign by Feb. 6.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which serves as the chief human resources agency and personnel policy manager for the federal government, sent out more than 2 million emails on the same day to federal workers nationwide with the proposal.

More than 20,000 federal workers have accepted the offer, making up more than 1 percent of the workforce, according to a Trump administration official. However, the number of deferred resignations is rapidly growing, and the largest spike is expected to come 24 to 48 hours before the Feb. 6 deadline, the official said.

Bonta is one of 12 attorneys general in a coalition including New York Attorney General Letitia James in issuing a warning ahead of the buyout deadline.

“The Trump Administration’s so-called buyout offer is a pointed attack aimed at dismantling our federal workforce and sowing chaos for Americans that rely on a functioning government,” said Bonta in a statement.

OPM’s director of communications, McLaurine Pinover, told The Epoch Times that the buyout “is a rare, generous opportunity; one that was thoroughly vetted and intentionally designed to support employees through restructuring.”

“Instead of spreading misinformation and using workers as political pawns, they should be making sure federal employees have the facts and freedom to make the best decision for themselves and their families,” she said, referring to critics such as the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employees union.

As of March 2024, California has 180,973 federal employees on OPM’s list, Pinover said.

California has the third-most federal workers in the nation behind Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to a 2023 report by the nonpartisan nonprofit organization Partnership for Public Service.

The top five agencies with the most federal employees nationwide are Veterans Affairs, Navy, Army, Homeland Security, and the Air Force.

However, military personnel, U.S. Postal Service workers, and those who work in immigration enforcement and national security are not eligible for the buyout offer.

The report also found the government-wide attrition rate in fiscal year 2023 was 5.9 percent. In fiscal years 2022 and 2021, the rate was 7.6 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.

Mark Tapscott contributed to this report.